Monitoring Device for a Motor-Driven Door

ABSTRACT

A monitoring device for a motor-driven door with a door controller for detecting a crash of a moving object with the door and for communicating information as to whether a crash has occurred to the door controller, wherein the monitoring device is equipped with at least one sensor for monitoring movement, shaking and/or vibration of the door in a Z axis, which sensor is disposed in and/or on the door leaf of the door, and wherein there is provided an analyzer unit, which is designed as an analyzer unit that analyzes the signals of the sensor and transmits an information stream to the door controller.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is based on and claims convention priority under 35 USC Section 119 on German patent application no. DE 10 2007 014 626.6 having a filing date of 23 Mar. 2007, German patent application no. DE 10 2007 014 627.4 having a filing date of 23 Mar. 2007, European patent application no. EP 07/111,823.6 having a filing date of 5 Jul. 2007, and European patent application no. EP 08/102,370.7 having a filing date of Mar. 7, 2008, each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a monitoring device for a motor-driven door.

From the prior art (DE 4313063 C2) there is known a rolling door with a flexible curtain.

The curtain of this prior art rolling door is made of a polycarbonate material, which has considerably lower bending resistance and much greater elastic deformability than steel, for example, so that the curtain yields elastically without buckling upon collisions with vehicles or the like, even at relatively high impact speeds, and the curtain is not knocked out of the guide rails.

In the high-speed door industry, such a collision is known as a crash, and the special kind of door that can absorb such a crash is accordingly known as a crash door.

If a crash is detected, the door is moved according to the prior art (DE 29606569 U1 and DE 29623551 U1) into a predetermined position, for example above a funnel-shaped threading device, so that the door can be automatically returned to the running tracks.

According to the prior art (DE 4313062 C2 and DE 29623551 U1), sensors are disposed in or on the guide elements or the lowest closing strip of the door in order to be able to detect such a crash. These sensors detect when the door has been knocked out of the guide rails, and in the event of a crash they transmit a signal to the door controller, for example via coiled cables.

These prior art devices have the disadvantage that it is a very complex matter to dispose sensors in the region of the guide elements. Several sensors must be provided, and during assembly they must also be appropriately set and adjusted so that a crash can be reliably detected. Furthermore, the sensors, which are usually constructed as maintained-contact or momentary-contact switches with a pre-tensioned spring, undergo a certain amount of wear, since mechanical contact must take place between their actuating elements and the guide elements of the door during each door movement.

The prior art device (DE 29623551 U1) also has the disadvantage that it is not possible to distinguish between a crash or a collision due to an object located under the door, and so each pulse transmission is interpreted as a crash. Furthermore, this device has the disadvantage that it must be adapted in each case to the specific door width.

In another prior art device (DE 29606569 U1) for detecting a crash, the deformation of a contact bar running along the lower end bar of the door is evaluated. This device has the disadvantage that the device must be adapted to the specific door width and that two additional contact bar are necessary in order to be able to detect a crash.

Furthermore, this prior art device has the disadvantage that the signal is transmitted via a coiled cable to the door controller. The coiled cable is disadvantageous, since it is subject to great wear, because it must follow the door leaf during each door movement.

Further prior art (U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,297 A) is a safety-edge unit, which monitors a door for obstruction-free closing. According to this prior art there is provided a vibration sensor, which senses the door movement and activates control electronics equipped with a microprocessor and a signal transmitter as long as it detects the door movement. After being wakened, a transmitter outputs a continuous first “heartbeat” signal. As soon as the safety-edge unit has detected an obstruction, it sends another heartbeat signal, which is different from the first heartbeat signal. If the door controller receives this second heartbeat signal or does not receive either of the two heartbeat signals, either the door movement is stopped or the door movement is reversed, until the door is completely open. The “heartbeat” signal is interrupted, for example, in the event of a defect of the safety-edge unit.

In this prior art method, a vibration sensor is used to detect any door movement, so that the safety-edge unit will send out a signal for the duration of the door movement. No provisions are made to distinguish which kind of door movement is occurring or in which direction the door is moving. To the contrary, the safety-edge unit of the door controller would signal a crash as a normal door movement.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The technical problem underlying the invention is to provide a monitoring device for an automatically driven door, wherein a crash of a moving object with the door can be detected in simple manner and a signal can be relayed reliably to the door controller.

The inventive monitoring device for a motor-driven door with a door controller for detecting a crash of a moving object with the door and for communicating information as to whether a crash has occurred to the door controller is characterized in that the monitoring device is equipped with at least one sensor for monitoring movement, shaking and/or vibration of the door in a Z axis, which sensor is disposed in and/or on a door leaf of the door, and in that there is provided an analyzer unit, which is designed as an analyzer unit that analyzes the signals of the sensor and transmits at least one information stream to the door controller.

The object could be a vehicle.

According to the inventive monitoring device, a sensor is to be integrated in the door leaf of what is preferably a high-speed door, especially an industrial door. The sensor, which is designed as a shaking sensor, vibration sensor, acceleration sensor or the like, and which will be referred to hereinafter merely as an acceleration sensor, is capable, according to the invention, of detecting typical shaking movements or movements of the type that develop during a collision (crash), for example if a vehicle collides with the door leaf.

As an example, the SMB380 (brand name) triaxial acceleration sensor of Bosch (company name) or another acceleration sensor can be used as the acceleration sensor.

In normal operation of a door, its end bar moves up and down in a horizontal plane within the lateral guide rails. This direction of movement will be referred to hereinafter as movement in the Y axis.

Door movements to the left and right within the guide rails take place because of the necessary gap between the door or end bar and the lateral guide rails. This direction of movement will be referred to hereinafter as the X axis.

During a crash, the door and especially the end bar are accelerated in the direction that represents the passage direction when the door is opened and that will be referred to hereinafter as the Z axis.

During normal door movement, the end bar of the door is accelerated and moved mainly in the Y axis. Because of mechanical influences of the bearings and guides in which the door is held and guided during movement, minor accelerations are additionally produced in the X axis and Z axis.

If the door suffers a crash, however, for example because a fork-lift truck passing through the door in the Z axis collides with door while it is only partly opened, distinct acceleration of the door in the Z axis takes place and is detected with the monitoring device mounted on the door as provided by the invention. Since analysis of the acceleration in the Z axis is adequate for detection of a crash, it is sufficient to use a monoaxial acceleration sensor in the inventive monitoring device and to mount it in such a way that it can analyze the accelerations in the Z axis of the door.

Advantageously the analyzer unit is designed as a selecting analyzer unit, in such a way that the only signals relayed as a collision to the door controller are those of sufficient amplitude and/or duration that they can be interpreted as a crash. Herewith unnecessary data transmission is avoided, as is an analysis in the door controller regarding the evaluation of whether or not a crash has occurred.

In a first advantageous embodiment, information transmission between the monitoring device and the door controller takes place unidirectionally from the monitoring device to the door controller, in this case over a single control line for transmission of a signal.

In a further advantageous embodiment, information transmission between the monitoring device and the door controller takes place bidirectionally. This has the advantage that the door controller can check the functional capability of the monitoring device, thus permitting control of the monitoring device by the door controller.

In a further advantageous embodiment, information transmission between the monitoring device and the door controller takes place by means of transmission of digital data or data words, for example over a serial data-transmission path. This embodiment has the advantage that the monitoring device can signal complex information to the door controller and that the door controller can send parameters and acknowledgment information to the monitoring device.

Particularly advantageously, the data-transmission path between the monitoring device and door controller is constructed as a bus-capable data-transmission path, thus allowing a plurality of communication addresses to use the same data-transmission path. As examples, the RS485 interface known from experience, the CAN bus or another hard-wired data-bus system can be used as such a data-transmission path. The use of a bus-capable data-transmission path has the advantage that the wiring complexity is relatively slight and that an already existing door controller with bus-capable data-transmission path can be easily retrofitted with the monitoring device.

According to a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, the monitoring device is mounted in the lower end bar of the door. This has the advantage that a sufficiently stable element for housing the monitoring device is present in all door types. In addition, the acceleration at this location during a crash is particularly high.

According to a further advantageous configuration of the invention, the acceleration sensor is analyzed by a microcontroller. The microcontroller makes it possible to analyze the electrical signals of the acceleration sensor, so that the only accelerations signaled as a crash to the door controller are those for which the actual value deviates in a predefined range during a nominal/actual comparison derived from analysis of the time variation and/or amplitude of the signals of the acceleration sensor.

According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the monitoring device is powered by at least one battery. It is also possible to provide at least one accumulator, which is recharged by a solar cell, for example. By virtue of the battery or accumulator, the switching pulse generated during a crash is detected even in the de-energized condition of the door controller. The monitoring device can advantageously detect the crash even when the monitoring device is being supplied with electrical voltage only by the at least one battery or the at least one accumulator.

Advantageously there are provided downstream electronics, which are referred to as the analyzer unit and which can contain a microcontroller, so that the crash event can also be stored. Advantageously, the crash event is then acknowledged by the door controller.

If the door controller is not active and cannot receive the message, the information that a crash has occurred is advantageously stored in the analyzer device, which relays the message to the door controller as soon as this is active once again. Hereby it is ensured that the door controller will not send an operating instruction to the door when the door is inoperative due to a crash that has occurred in stationary condition.

In order to prevent any movement of the door after a collision, the door controller advantageously acknowledges the crash signal.

According to a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, external wiring is not used, but instead information transfer takes place wirelessly, for example by radio or optical means.

In this case the monitoring device is supplied with electrical energy by a battery or an accumulator or some other mobile power pack and is equipped not only with the acceleration sensor and the analyzer unit but also with a transmitter/receiver for wireless transmission of data to a door controller, a unidirectional transmitter being sufficient in the simplest embodiment. In the normal case, the analyzer unit and the transmitter/receiver are in a power-saving idle state. In this embodiment the acceleration sensor has the further task of also functioning as a wake-up device in order to wake the analyzer unit from the power-saving idle state in the case of accelerations that exceed a definite value, so that the said unit can analyze the sensor signals and decide whether a crash has occurred and information must be relayed via the transmitter/receiver to the door controller.

This monitoring device has the advantage that no line connection to the door controller is needed. In addition, this embodiment requires very little power, since exclusively the acceleration sensor must be supplied with power, while the analyzer unit and the transmitter/receiver are activated only when necessary.

According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the response threshold and shaking direction can be assigned as parameters to the acceleration sensor, so that the sensor can be adapted to special requirements.

In the individual case, the system can advantageously comprise a safety feature, for example by means of redundant design.

The inventive monitoring device has the advantage that it does not require expensive switching elements, which are also susceptible to wear, and that there is no need for mechanical adjustments of the sensors in or on the guide elements. Furthermore, the device has the advantage that it does not suffer any wear or damage and that a special construction is not necessary.

The inventive monitoring device is advantageously configured in such a way that it detects a collision regardless of whether or not the door leaf is moving. This means that it detects a collision occurring substantially in horizontal direction (Z axis) or having a correspondingly large horizontal component.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further features and advantages of the invention will become evident from the associated drawings, in which an exemplary embodiment of an inventive door is illustrated merely by way of example. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a door;

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the inventive monitoring device;

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the inventive monitoring device for wireless data transmission;

FIG. 4 shows the schematic signals of the Z-axis of an acceleration sensor during an upward or downward movement of the door;

FIG. 5 shows the schematic signals of the Z axis of an acceleration sensor during a crash.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows a door 1 with a door leaf 11, which is configured as a film-type high-speed door. During opening, door leaf 11, while being guided laterally in guide rails 3, is wound onto a door shaft 2. Door shaft 2 is made to rotate by a door drive 8. Control of door drive 8 is exerted via a door controller 7, which is equipped with operating elements 9, with which an operator can input instructions to open, stop or close the door. On an end bar 5, which is mounted on the lower edge of door 1, there is disposed not only a safety edge 6, which has the purpose of transmitting a signal if the door encounters an obstruction, but also a monitoring device 4 according to the present invention, which has the purpose of transmitting a signal if a moving object collides with the door 1 and causes a crash. During a crash of door leaf 11, a signal is transmitted via a coiled cable 10 to a door controller 7.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a possible embodiment of monitoring device 4, equipped with an acceleration sensor 21 and an analyzer unit 22, which can be designed as a microcontroller. This analyzer unit 22 has the task of analyzing the signals of acceleration sensor 21 as regards whether a crash has occurred, in order to transmit this information to door controller 7 in the form of an electrical signal or in the form of digital information via an interface 23, which can be designed as a unidirectional or bidirectional interface 23.

If a measured value of acceleration sensor 21 exceeds a threshold value set in analyzer unit 22, or if a certain number of measured values exceed a previously defined threshold value in a previously defined time period, analyzer unit 23 communicates information that a crash has occurred to door controller 7. However, the determination as to whether a crash has occurred can also be achieved by averaging or by another kind of filtering of a plurality of measured values of acceleration sensor 21 over a well defined time period.

FIG. 3 shows a further embodiment of monitoring device 4, which in this embodiment is designed for wireless data transmission to door controller 7 (not illustrated). This acceleration sensor 21 is supplied with electricity by a battery 30. As soon as acceleration sensor 21 has detected an acceleration that exceeds a previously defined threshold value, analyzer device 22 is turned on via a switch 33, in order to check whether the detected accelerations are due to a crash. If a crash is recognized by analyzer device 22, it turns on a transmitter/receiver 32 via a switch 34 to initiate information transmission via transmitter/receiver 32 and an antenna 31 to door controller 7 (not illustrated here).

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates the signals of the Z axis of acceleration sensor 21 during the upward movement of door 1. The dashed lines SO and SU represent the upper and lower threshold values for normal door movement. The upward movement of door 1 begins at point of time t1 and ends at point of time t2.

FIG. 5 in turn shows the signals of the Z axis of acceleration sensor 21 during the upward movement, which in this figure begins at point of time t3. Until point of time t4, the signals do not go above upper threshold value SO or below lower threshold value SU. Thus the upward movement is normal until point of time t4. After point of time t4 there can be recognized some amplitudes that go above and below the upper and lower threshold values SO and SU respectively, and thus are regarded by monitoring device 4 as a crash, whereupon the said device signals them as a crash to door controller 7. On the basis of the crash message of monitoring device 4, door controller 7 stops the door movement at point of time t5.

REFERENCE NUMERALS

 1 Door  2 Door shaft  3 Guide rails  4 Monitoring device  5 End bar  6 Safety edge  7 Door controller  8 Door drive  9 Operating element 10 Coiled cable 11 Door leaf 21 Acceleration sensor 22 Analyzer device 23 Interface 30 Battery 31 Antenna 32 Transmitter/receiver 33, 34 Switches SO Threshold value SU Threshold value t1 Instant t2 Instant t3 Instant t4 Instant 

1. A monitoring device for a motor-driven door with a door controller for detecting a crash of a moving object with the door and for communicating information as to whether a crash has occurred to the door controller, characterized in that the monitoring device (4) is equipped with at least one sensor (21) for monitoring movement, shaking and/or vibration of the door (1) in a Z axis, which sensor is disposed in and/or on a door leaf (11) of the door (1), and in that there is provided an analyzer unit (22), which is designed as an analyzer unit (22) that analyzes the signals of the sensor (21) and transmits at least one information stream to the door controller (7).
 2. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that the analyzer unit (22) is designed as a selecting analyzer unit (22), in such a way that the only signals relayed as a crash to the door controller (7) are those of sufficient amplitude and/or duration that they can be interpreted as a crash.
 3. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that the monitoring device (4) is disposed in or on a lower end bar (5) of the door (1).
 4. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that the analyzer unit (22) is equipped with a microcontroller that analyzes the sensor (21).
 5. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that there is provided at least one battery (30) and/or at least one accumulator for powering the monitoring device (4).
 6. A monitoring device according to claim 5, characterized in that the monitoring device (4) is configured as a monitoring device (4) that registers a crash even when the monitoring device (4) is being supplied with electrical voltage only by the at least one battery (30) or the at least one accumulator.
 7. A monitoring device according to claim 5, characterized in that transmission taking place wirelessly via a radio link or an optical link is provided for information transmission between the monitoring device (4) and the door controller (7).
 8. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that information transmission between the monitoring device (4) and the door controller (7) takes place in the form of digital data or data words.
 9. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that bidirectional information transmission is provided for information transmission between the monitoring device (4) and the door controller (7).
 10. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that a bus-capable data-transmission path is provided for information transmission between the monitoring device (4) and a door controller (7).
 11. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that the monitoring device (4) and/or the sensor (21) is designed such that its response threshold can be assigned as a parameter.
 12. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that the analyzer device (22) is provided with a memory device, in which the information about a crash can be stored in the monitoring device (4) for at least long enough that it can be acknowledged by the door controller (7).
 13. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that the sensor (21) is designed as a shaking sensor, vibration sensor and/or acceleration sensor.
 14. A monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that the sensor (21) for detecting movement, shaking and or vibration senses the movement, shaking and/or vibration exclusively in the Z axis. 